Last weekend, while the rest of Canada was watching the excellent police work/police brutality (depending on your point of view) at the G20 Summit in Toronto, the fine men and women who serve and protect my community were busy creating controversies of their own.
Ok, well maybe "controversy" is too strong a word - but dammit, they pissed me off!
I've lived in my house for 2 years. It's in a townhouse complex where we have assigned parking. But my house faces the street so most of the time I just park in front of my house. Sometimes I park facing west (the correct way), sometimes I park facing east (the incorrect way). It really depends on where I've come from.
For 2 straight years, parking has never been an issue. Until last Sunday morning.
Last Saturday when I arrived home I parked facing east. No big deal - like I said, I've done it hundreds of times. But when I woke up in the morning, I had a ticket for parking the wrong way!
For those of you who are self-righteous and follow every rule, yes, I was parked facing the wrong way, so yes I deserved the ticket. And yes I know that just because I've gotten away with it for 2 years doesn't mean I should be surprised that I did get ticketed. Besides, it's a relatively inexpensive ticket.
None of that is what I'm upset about.
What pisses me off is the cars that race down my street at all hours of the day! And it happens every single day without exception. I live in a neighbourhood that is home to a ton of children, and there's a high school just down the road. Yet I've seen cars blow right through the stop sign at the end of my street, and witnessed almost a half dozen serious close calls at the corner where another street feeds onto my street. One of these days there WILL be an accident at that corner. It's not a matter of "if" but "when".
We've called twice and asked the police to put a patrol car at that corner to slow down the traffic (and I know my next door neighbour has complained too). Their response on both occasions - "I'm sorry, we simply don't have the manpower".
Really?? So what you're telling me is you don't have the manpower to ticket speeders and in all likelihood, save a life or two. But at 4:00am on a Sunday morning, you have plenty of manpower to ticket cars that are parked the wrong way??
Is there something wrong with me that I don't understand this logic?
*sigh*